UCL Debate - 'This house believes that UCL is NOT complicit in acts of terror'
18 January 2010
Speaking for the motion were Philip Sands QC and Wes Streeting, President of the National Union of Students. Speaking against were CSC Director Douglas Murray and Rashad Ali, of Centri. This topical debate was organised by the UCL debating society following revelations that the only suspect in the failed Detroit airline bombing was a former president of UCL Islamic Society and accusations that UCL had failed in its duty of care towards students. (Videos of the other speakers can be found on the CSC’s YouTube page - www.youtube.com/centresocialcohesion)
CSC Director Douglas Murray appeared on the BBC’s Question Time alongside the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Ben Bradshaw MP, the Conservative peer Lord Lawson, the Liberal Democrat Baroness Tonge of Kew and the columnist Jane Moore.
There’s nothing ‘safe’ about letting fanatics preach
Imagine that a society at a London university invites a well-known racist to address its members. The following week, the same thing happens; the week after, they get two KKK members to debate each other. A number of these speakers are known to be avowed admirers of the convicted London nail-bomber David Copeland.
Centre for Social Cohesion Press Release 20 January 2009
"The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) - a group with a history of promoting extremists including al-Qaeda linked cleric Anwar al Awalki - are due to hold an event on 13 February which includes speakers who support a proscribed terrorist groups..."
University of Birmingham Refuses to Ban Supporter of Suicide Bombing
Centre for Social Cohesion Press Release 18 January 2010
"Just weeks after revelations about the radicalisation of Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab during his time at University College London (UCL), the University of Birmingham has sanctioned the appearance of a supporter of a terrorist organisation on their campus at an event on 20 January..."
Centre for Social Cohesion Press Briefing 5 January 2010
Failed Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was president of the University College London (UCL) Islamic Society (ISOC) in the academic year 2006-07, and organised a controversial 'War on terror week' featuring a debate 'Jihad v Terrorism'.
Abdulmutallab's politicisation of the UCL ISOC is not an anomaly. The CSC can reveal that a wide range of extremist speakers have regularly addressed UCL ISOC. Speakers since 7/7 include supporters of the terrorist group Hamas, members of Hizb ut-Tahrir (while subject to a NUS ban), and those who have spoken in support of the Taliban, warned Muslims not to integrate into western societies, argued in favour of domestic violence and advocated the destruction of Israel.
Islam on Campus: A survey of UK student opinions, John Thorne and Hannah Stuart
Islam on Campus is the most comprehensive survey ever undertaken of Muslim student opinion in the UK, based on a specially commissioned YouGov poll of 1400 students, fieldwork and interviews. The report examines students' attitudes on key issues including killing in the name of religion, establishing a worldwide Caliphate, introducing Sharia law to the UK, setting up an Islamic political party in the UK, gender equality, the treatment of apostates and homosexuals and the compatibility of Islam with secularism and democracy.
Haringey Council Whitewashes Hizb ut-Tahrir Schools
Centre for Social Cohesion Press Release 11 December 2009
"The Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) can reveal that the curriculum of schools at the heart of a political row over public funding systematically teaches primary school children the extreme Islamist ideology of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT)..."
CSC Statement: Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation and Hizb ut-Tahrir 26 November 2009
Yesterday the leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, accused the government of using money allocated to prevent violent extremism to fund the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation (ISF), a registered educational charity with links to the extreme Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT).
In a briefing paper released today, 'Anwar al-Awlaki: The UK Connection', the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) can reveal an extensive post 9/11 network of UK organisations which have promoted and defended pro al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.
Among Awlaki's connections include Nidal Hassan, the gunman suspected of carrying out the 5 November 2009 attack on Fort Hood, Texas.
Debate: Ayaan Hirsi Ali vs Ed Husain - 'The West and the future of Islam'
On 20th November, the Centre for Social Cohesion hosted an evening debate in Westminster between Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch MP and self-declared Muslim apostate, and Ed Husain, the author of the best-selling book The Islamist.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that Islam 'as a body of ideas' is opposed to 'Enlightenment' values. Ed Husain advocates an Islamic 'renaissance' arguing that Islam can be re-interpreted to meet the challenges of the modern world.
In September 2007, Mohammed
Atif Siddique was jailed for eight years for various terror offences. The most
serious of these charges - possession of an article for a purpose connected to terrorism
- was quashed last week. The appeals judge, Lord Osborne, called the original
verdict a 'miscarriage of justice', which is inevitably the headline that most
of the press ran on. The impression given was that the British state was once
again unfairly demonising its Muslim population.
The New York Times has reported that al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been promoted in the UK since 2003, has now admitted that he met with Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last fall.
CSC Director Douglas Murray will be a panellist on tonight's Question Time. Murray will be appearing alongside Ben Bradshaw, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Conservative peer Lord Lawson, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Tonge and journalist Jane Moore.
The show will be broadcast at 10.35pm on BBC 1.
Posted by Robin Simcox on January 28, 2010 4:01 PM Permalink
Reproduced below is my latest blog for Conservative Home.
The Guardian has made more petty attempts
at moral equivalence today by running a 'story' in which they get overly
excited about the fact that between 2004 and 2008, 45 Americans tried to claim
political asylum in the UK in order to avoid 'persecution' in the US.
